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Dolby Digital Live - Creative vs Asus

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|oR|Spetsnaz

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Jul 20, 2004
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I have a set of Tritton AX Pro headphones that I use for gaming. They use an optical input and have a Dolby Digital decoder/headphone amp. My soundcard is a Creative Xfi Fatal1ty Pro PCI, which is the older model (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102005). I have the 5.25" bay mounted breakout box that I use for the optical output.

The reason I am posting is because I have had absolutely nothing but nightmare level trouble with this setup since I started using optical out. I paid money to Creative for the ability to use Dolby Digital Live for on the fly 5.1 encoding so I can play my games in 5.1 via the optical out. Because Creative's own drivers are so gawd awful, I am using a hacked driver I found on the Creative forums. I constantly have to switch DDL on and off, depending on the application because it just doesnt work right. The ONLY game that actually has any sound at this point with DDL enabled is CoD Black Ops. Every other game I have is just dead silent when DDL is enabled.

I am so fed up with this issue, that I am ready to drop a lot of money on a new sound card. I am curious if anybody here has a newer Creative card that they use DDL with for gaming and if the newer cards/drivers have the same rage inducing problems mine does. I mainly use my PC for gaming and watching movies/shows, so I really want something that works well.

I was thinking of either purchasing a Creative Xfi Titanium HD, Xfi Titanium Fatal1ty, or a Asus Xonar D2 or D2X.

I have heard Asus's driver support is as bad or worse than Creative, so I really dont know where to turn right now.

Any thoughts?
 
Just a thought, but have you double-checked your mixer settings to ensure that audio is being outputted to the right device?

Try firing up a problematic game, and check your mixer settings afterwards. I sense something is amiss around there.
 
DDL is not going to work well period. I gave up on it a long time ago. If you want 5.1 for games, analogue is basically it sorry.

On the plus side, the 3D CMSS via optical is better than DDL for directional sound. It is limited to stereo but trust me, it works just fine. Especially with headphones.
 
DDL works just fine for me on a 4.1 bookshelf/ receiver setup.

CMSS as an alternative *will* work, but will also colour the sound to some extent. It will also have to be toggled on and off, depending on the content being played (music, tv shows, etc.).

Please don't spread wrong information.
 
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12andy said:
DDL works just fine for me on a 4.1 bookshelf/ receiver setup.

Please don't spread wrong information.
Click to expand...

Wrong info? It is a matter of opinion. Mine is that when I had it working, it sounded directionally off compared to 5.1 analogue and terrible sonically compared to digital stereo. He is having a number of issues which would easily be resolved by simplifying the process.

My response is based on several years of trial and error. I have settled on 3DCMSS via optical stereo as the best sounding gaming solution for me.

So it works fine for you. What is your solution then?
 
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Couple thoughts - if you hate Creative drivers so much, why are you considering going to yet another Creative product? And, you're using a hacked driver, so that could be part of your problem. Have you considered switching to an Auzentech card, like the Forte? They also support DDL and DTS: Connect, and have (slightly) better driver support than Creative. I've used my Forte many times with both DDL and DTS: Connect (which I prefer) and it works just fine.
 
spaceman said:
DDL is not going to work well period. I gave up on it a long time ago. If you want 5.1 for games, analogue is basically it sorry.

On the plus side, the 3D CMSS via optical is better than DDL for directional sound. It is limited to stereo but trust me, it works just fine. Especially with headphones.
Click to expand...

Your first three sentences coming across as being factual, than rather of opinion, was my main concern.

My solution for the interim is as per my previous post: to double-check the mixer settings to make sure audio is being outputted to the right place.

I had a similar "no sound" situation with Winamp before, after switching to DDL. Turns out it was a silly setting in the mixer that was off, hence my suggestion.
 
No offense taken.

Anyway, if the DLL works with one game but none other with the same settings?

My point is, even if it does work, the sound is not as good for gaming as the 3DCMSS. For music and movies, it might well be as good or better. The on the fly decoding leaves something to be desired imo.

For music, I use music creation mode with bit perfect playback and no effects. Works nicely.
 
I was hoping by going to a newer card, the drivers for DDL would be better than my current setup. DDL was released as a paid downloadable upgrade for my sound card and is not included with the drivers.

I originally was using regular analog 5.1 output to my headphones as it offers analog and optical, but the sound quality difference going to optical was night and day better.

I'm gonna go pickup a Xfi titanium from a B&M, reformat my hard drive, and give it a whirl. If its no better, I will just return it.
 
I have the titanium and I can tell you that DLL works with everything that I tried.

Just sounded weird with my system. However, my system is not yours nor are my ears.

Happy Listening!
 
I'm currently using the X-Fi Titanium HD and I havn't had any issues with 5.1 encoding with either Dolby Digital or DTS. I leave mine on DTS and leave my computer running for days at a time with no issues. I've tested blu ray playback with the soundcard decoding/re-encoding into dts 5.1 as well as spdif passthrough for the original dts straight to the receiver, and found no discernible difference in terms of positionality (i know the windows mixer will downsample to 16bit 44.1khz), so I'm quite pleased with it. I Just wish dts connect supported 96/24 for asio playback of my DVD-A rips.
 
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I bought the X-fi titanium hd today. I havent installed it yet, but I think I am going to return it because I just realized after the fact it doesnt support analog 5.1 which is kindof a deal killer with my logitech z-5500's.
 
|oR|Spetsnaz said:
I bought the X-fi titanium hd today. I havent installed it yet, but I think I am going to return it because I just realized after the fact it doesnt support analog 5.1 which is kindof a deal killer with my logitech z-5500's.
Click to expand...

Why is it a deal killer? Just use optical out to the z5500 and use DDL/DTS Connect.
 
lol

wtf? Why isn't that included with the card? My titanium is an older version and has 5.1 analogue.
 
450 said:
Why is it a deal killer? Just use optical out to the z5500 and use DDL/DTS Connect.
Click to expand...

All my troubles started when I started using optical out. In my current living situation, I am forced to use headphones, but once I find a new place, I'm going back to my Z-5500's.
 
There should be a break-out cable set for analog 5.1 with that card.

The op-amps were upgraded. There's no way Creative would ditch analog.
 
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